Study of Differences in Nonverbal Communication between Chinese and English

1、中英国家非语言交际行为的差异研究study of differences in nonverbal communication between chinese and englishabstract: in daily communication, people usually pay attention to verbal communication, while neglecting the facts that communication also depends on nonverbal codes, and that communication is the combination

2、of verbal and nonverbal system. nonverbal cues are one of the main causes of misunderstanding and culture conflict between people from different cultures. with increasingly frequent international communication, the study of the cultural differences between chinese and english is of great significanc

3、e. this paper explores the relationship between nonverbal communication and culture and gives a contrastive study of the cultural differences of nonverbal communication between chinese and english in terms of body language, space language, time language and paralanguage. the paper aims at arousing r

4、eaders awareness of the importance of nonverbal communication and their interests in differences between chinese and english nonverbal communication. therefore, readers may improve intercultural communicative competence. key words: nonverbal; cultural difference; communication; cross-culture摘要： 在日常交

5、际中，人们往往只注重语言交际，而忽略了交际还需要依靠非语言符号，以及交际是语言交际和非语言交际相结合的事实。非语言因素是引起不同文化人交流误解，文化冲突的重要原因之一。随着国际交流的日益频繁，对中国和说英语国家的文化差异研究具有举足轻重的意义。本文从文化的视角探讨了非语言交际和文化的关系, 按照肢体语言、空间语言、时间语言和副语言的顺序对中英国家非语言交际的差异进行了对比研究。本文的目的是为了激发人们对非语言交际重要性的认识的兴趣和对中英国家非语言交际差异的兴趣，从而提高跨文化交际的能力。关键词：非语言；文化差异；交际；跨文化contentsi. introduction.1ii. gener

6、al remarks of nonverbal communication2a. verbal communication and nonverbal communication.2b. the definition of nonverbal communication . 3c. classifications of nonverbal communication.31. kinesics.42. proxemics.43. paralanguage.4 4. chronemics.5d. the characteristic of nonverbal communication6iii.

7、the functions of nonverbal communication.6a. repeating.6b. complementing.7c. substituting.7d. regulating.7iv.the relationship between nonverbal communication and culture.7v. cultural differences of nonverbal communication between chinese and english .8a. body language.8 1. smile and laughter.82. ges

8、ture.93. facial expression.94. eye contact.10b. space language.10c. time language.11d. paralanguage.11vi. conclusion.12works cited.14i. introduction human communication is usually divided into verbal and nonverbal systems. nonverbal behaviors play different and important roles in the total process o

9、f communication. people communicate by nonverbal language more than verbal language. actually, people spend a considerable amount of time on nonverbal communication in daily life. in addition, people convey much of our emotional meanings through nonverbal elements. just as abercrombie says: “we spea

10、k with our vocal organs, but we converse with our whole body” (jia 129). whether people are aware of it or not, people communicate when people speak and people may also communicate when people do not speak. people may use nonverbal behaviors such as eye contact, gestures, silence to communicate.nonv

11、erbal communication is a vital component in whole communication. “verbal communication is only incomplete communication. however, people only pay attention to verbal communication and neglect nonverbal communication, which is incomplete communication. concerning about body language but neglecting ot

12、her aspects of nonverbal communication, it is also unilateral” (bi 3). in some specific circumstances, nonverbal communication plays more important role, because people learn about their affective or emotional states through their actions. if people observe someone through their clenched fist and gr

13、im expression, they do not need words to tell them this person is not happy. it is significant in human interaction because it is usually responsible for first impression. it is valuable in human interaction because many of their nonverbal actions are not easily controlled consciously. finally, nonv

14、erbal communication is important for the study of intercultural communication because a great deal of nonverbal behavior speaks a universal language.with increasingly frequent international communication, the study of the cultural differences between chinese and english is of great significance. the

15、 paper aims at arousing readers awareness of the importance of nonverbal communication and their interests in differences between chinese and english nonverbal communication. so the paper is composed of six parts: part one is the introduction. it focuses on the importance of nonverbal communication,

16、 a brief narration on structure of the paper. part two is an overview of nonverbal communication. this part discusses the relationship between verbal communication and nonverbal communication as well as definition, classification and characteristic of nonverbal communication. part three covers the f

17、our functions of nonverbal communication. part four explores the relationship between nonverbal communication and culture. part five is the main part of the paper. it makes a contrastive analysis of cultural differences in nonverbal communication between chinese and english cultures in terms of body

18、 language, space language, time language and paralanguage. part six is the conclusion of the paper. ii. general remarks of nonverbal communicationa. verbal communication and nonverbal communicationverbal communication and nonverbal communication are two channels of human communication. the two often

19、 occur simultaneously and complement each other when people communicate face to face. someone may say, “i m feeling pretty good about how i look today,” and the tone of his or her voice, clothing, general enthusiasm in speaking may provide a nonverbal confirmation of the words. as yang ping (1994, 3

20、-4) argues that verbal communication is accompanied with nonverbal communication in human communication; the former mainly produces vocal effects, and the latter mostly produces visual, sensory, tactual effects. sometimes the nonverbal acts may be a substitute for the words. if people see someone wi

21、th a clenched fist and a grim expression, they do not need words to tell them that this person is angry. verbal communication is used to convey meaning of the message, whereas nonverbal communication is applied to present the communication pattern and indicate the relationship of the two participant

22、s. people can judge the closeness of relationship between the speakers from the distance they keep during their communication. the use of verbal messages involves human intention, while the use of nonverbal messages can be intentional or unintentional. it is very difficult to control a blushing face

23、 when people are embarrassed.verbal communication is linguistic and structured while nonverbal behavior is non- linguistic and nonstructural. verbal communication involves symbols, for example, the sound, words and grammar of a language, with universal meanings for all that are taking part in the pr

24、ocess. if one is tired, he or she may say, “im tired”. nonverbal communication involves the use of symbols other than the written or spoken words, such as gestures, eye behavior, tone of voice, use of space and touch. verbal message is discontinuous, but nonverbal message is continuous. words have d

25、efinite beginning and ending points, while nonverbal messages keep on going even if people do not talk. for example, silence still conveys meaning when there is no talk.both verbal communication and nonverbal communication are very important in our daily communication. the better use of the two syst

26、ems enables people to communicate effectively and smoothly. as gibson and hanna state “if you want to be an effective communicator, you must be sensitive to the relationship between verbal and nonverbal modes of communication” (gibson 98).b. the definition of nonverbal communicationas one means of h

27、umans communication，nonverbal communication conveys peoples meaning consciously or unconsciously and intentionally or unintentionally. incorporating with verbal means，nonverbal cues make people interact smoothly. thus，people need to define what nonverbal communication is first.simply speaking, nonve

28、rbal communication is communication without words. but according to some writers, nonverbal communication involves all those nonverbal stimuli in a communication setting that are generated by both the source and his or her use of the environment and that has potential message value for the source or

29、 receiver (samovar 149). for example, if someone has a job interview, his clothing must be harmony with the color of the wall. if not, his interviewers first impression of him is not as good as he should be, so the color of the wall is also one part of the whole nonverbal communication event.the def

30、inition also includes unintentional behavior as well as intentional behavior in the total communication process. this approach is realistic because people send the preponderance of nonverbal messages without ever being aware that they have meaning for other people. in verbal communication, people co

31、nsciously dip into our vocabulary and decide what words to use, although people often consciously decide to smile or select a certain piece of jewelry. people also send countless messages that they never intend to be part of the communication, for example, frowning into the sun and making someone th

32、ink people are mad, leaving some shampoo in their hair and making someone think they look silly, accidentally brushing up against someone and making that person think they are flirting.finally, it is necessary for people to be aware of the relationship between nonverbal and verbal communication. ver

33、bal and nonverbal acts are playing a supporting role in the process of communication, they often occur simultaneously. one complements the other. nonverbal communication usually functions along with the verbal aspects of communication to create a message. therefore, much of nonverbal communication o

34、ccurs in conjunction with verbal communication.c. classifications of nonverbal communication1. kinesics“kinesics, defined as the study of body movement, posture and facial and eye behavior is the category which has received the most research and the greatest amount of public attention during recent

35、years” (woolfolk 17). authors have told learners that if a woman sits with her arms crossed, it means she is cold toward other people. if she crosses her legs, it means that she is trying to block others out or sexually frigid. as many researchers have noted, people may be able to stop talking in th

36、e vocal sense, but they cannot stop sending messages nonverbally. intentionally or unintentionally, their bodies continue to send messages through posture, leaning, tension, gestures and other body expressions.birdwhistell and dittmann were the first researchers to conduct in depth studies concernin

37、g the messages people send with their bodies. birdwhistell and dittmann offer two perspectives for viewing the structural units of kinesic behavior. birdwhistell contends that body language should be studied as communication system, in much the same way that spoken language is studied through the us

38、e of structural units or building blocks (birdwhistell 30). dittmann, on the other hand, contends that major differences exist between the verbal language system and the body language system. specifically, dittmann argues that body movements in general do not form an alphabet comprised of discrete u

39、nits and are not governed by explicit, specific rules. both perspectives offer important information and views concerning the study of kinesics and the future research in this area (dittmann 47).2. proxemicsproxemics is concerned with the relationships of humans and space. edward t. hall, who coined

40、 the term “proxemics”, defines it as “the interrelated observations and theories of mans use of space as a specialized elaboration of culture” (hall 72), and more explicitly, as “the study of how man unconsciously structures microspace the distance between men in conduct of daily transactions, the o

41、rganization of space in his houses and buildings, and ultimately the layout of his towns” (hall 75). halls productive research marks the beginning of more systematic and penetrating study of proxemic investigation in the realm of nonverbal communication.3. paralanguagethis category of nonverbal beha

42、vior consists of the nonlinguistic accompaniments of speech such as voice volume, tempo, pitch and intensity as well as intruding sounds, hesitations, and pauses. since paralanguage refers to the vocal aspects of speech, people are dealing primarily with the sound produced during speech or conversat

43、ion. when dealing with sound we can identify eight attributes or areas of sound which contribute to the paralinguistic meaning associated with the linguistics. in addition, people are talking about loudness, pitch, duration, quality, regularity, articulation, pronunciation, and silence as functions

44、of the paralinguistic cues people use. loudness deals with the intensity of the voice. here loudness is more than simply volume. people can be loud without raising their voice. in many cases, lowering the voice produces the desired result. pitch is the range his voice uses during conversation. most

45、of people have certain pitch ranges, or extreme high pitch to extreme low pitch in their voices. people do not think of pitch much, unless they “break” in the smoothness of transition from one level to another or use a different pitch for some effect. duration relates to how long the sound is made.

46、it may also be considered as a “juncture” or dividing point between speech clauses. quality is a judgmental aspect of the voice which is associated with the speakers timbre, tonality, and production of air flow through the glottis. regularity may be defined as the rate with which people speak and in

47、clude stress within the speech. articulation, which used to be a major concern of many, concerns the clearness and control of the sound being produced. pronunciation, which is closely related to articulation, deals with both the clearness and control of the sound and the rhythm and rate of speech. f

48、inally, silence refers to the lack of sound.4. chronemicschronemics is the study of time, or more precisely, the studies of how human perceive structure and use time as nonverbal communication (burgoon 50).time is one of the key areas of cultural differences, which often stay hidden behind the scene

49、 just like shakespeare wrote“the inaudible and noiseless foot of time”. though people can neither hold it nor see it always commands over their lives. time can be communicative because of how people can place behaviors and events in the flow of time to change their meaning. for example, a call at mi

50、dnight may mean there is something urgent happened. a cultures use of time can provide valuable clues to how members of that culture value and respond to time. however, usually people dont think of time as cultural. after all, a mechanical timepiece is something outside of his heads and bodies. thus

51、, different time concepts stand in their way of intercultural communication without being noticed. the differences of temporal behaviors between different countries often lead to misunderstanding and communicative failure in intercultural communication. this part will be concentrating on contrastive

52、 analysis of cultural differences between the two countries and temporal perceptions and behaviors caused by those differences, with an aim of promoting the effective intercultural communication. d. the characteristic of nonverbal communicationsaundra and richard noted that all forms of nonverbal co

53、mmunication have four characteristics in common (saundra 58).nonverbal communication is culturally determined. it is unique to the culture or subculture to which people belong. much of peoples nonverbal behavior is learned in childhood, passed on from their parents and others with whom they associat

54、e.nonverbal communication may conflict with verbal communication. the nonverbal messages usually mix with verbal messages, in such situation, nonverbal communication is more reliable than the verbal content, because it is much harder to manipulate nonverbal behavior than verbal behaviors.nonverbal c

55、ommunication is largely unconscious. people often dont recognize their nonverbal behavior when they communicate with others.nonverbal communication shows peoples feelings and attitudes. people can judge others emotions in their faces (saundra 60). the fact that people are all constantly giving out n

56、onverbal clues is important because it means that people have a constant source of information available about others. if people are aware of these signals, they will be more aware of how others feel and think, and they will be able to respond better to their behavior.iii. the functions of nonverbal

57、 communicationin face-to-face conversation, nonverbal behavior and speech are complementary to each other. abercrombie said, “we speak with vocal organs but converse with entire bodies” (jia 126). samovar and porter conclude that nonverbal communication has four main functions (samovar 152).a. repeatingpeople often use nonverbal behaviors to repeat and reinforc